CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)  In its prime, a massive steam locomotive known as Big Boy No. 4014 was a moving eruption of smoke and vapor, a 6,300-horsepower brute dragging heavy freight trains over the mountains of Wyoming and Utah.

It's been silent for half a century, pushed aside by more efficient diesels, but now it's coming back to life. The Union Pacific Railroad is embarking on a yearslong restoration project that will put No. 4014 back to work pulling special excursion trains.

"It's sort of like going and finding the Titanic or something that's just very elusive, nothing that we ever thought would happen," said Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains, a magazine that covers the railroad industry.

"Something that's so large and powerful and magnificent, we didn't think any of them would ever come back," he said.

None of these are currently running but an example of the slightly smaller “Challenger” series loco can be seen in action by searching for “UP 3985” on YouTube. Still a massive 1 MM lb+ plus behemoth, absolutely awesome barreling across Wyoming at 70 mph. There are also some archival pieces of the 40xx Big Boys.

34
posted on 04/15/2014 5:17:19 PM PDT
by Attention Surplus Disorder
(At no time was the Obama administration aware of what the Obama administration was doing)

the eternally hot core flashes water to steam to drive the turbines which drive the generators which drive the electricity.

Most nuclear power stations use pressurized water reactors. The primary coolant is water that is prevented from vaporising by keeping it under tremendous pressure. As it passes through the reactor its temperature rises by only a few degrees. It then passes through a steam generator where it heats unpressurized water into steam. This is relatively low grade steam and the turbines are specially designed for it.

As a matter of fact, if the water in the primary coolant loop starts getting vapor in it, it becomes suddenly very inefficient at absorbing heat from the reactor, and you've got a big problem.

There are two in a railroad museum in northern Illinois. I visited it about 15 years ago and got some pictures of my children sitting on the them. These machines were truly awe-inspiring. I got the same feeling from looking at them and touching them that I got from watching a rocket take off. Even silent and rusted, power radiated from them. I am so pleased someone is bringing one back to life. Seeing it move will be a tremendous thrill.

This massive train engine was on display in California at the LA county fair for years — we climbed all over it, sat in the engineer’s seat and marveled at how huge it was. We imagined ourselves driving the thing over the Sierra Nevada mountains, how magnificent it must have been!

This past Sept. at the fair, there were a bunch of young guys working on it - we asked what was up and they said they were going to take the train to Wyoming and get it back in working order (they told it would take two years).

I hated to see it go because it was such a marvel of engineering and pure power. The diesel engineers who were working on the train said it would be fixed up so people could ride on it, that it would be making excursions.

Sigh. Guess we’ll have to travel to Wyoming to see it in action (it’ll be worth it.) Only wish dad were alive to see it fired up...

I got to visit the UP 4014 while it was at West Colton yards. I think it is still there but is about to leave for Wyoming. They will be coverting it to oil fired by droping a new oil tank in where the coal used to go.

I got to talk with the people who will be doing the work and who will be behind the controls when it gets to be operational. There are like 8 of them still in existance across the country but this one was in the best shape. Being in Southern California helped in the preservation.

We were also told at the fair by the docents, when this particular train was on display for years, that it caused prairie fires as it roared across the plains — there were so many sparks coming from the stack.

The young engineers working on it said THAT had to be dealt with b/c it would never be allowed to “fire up” if it shot out sparks as it did in the old days.

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